Along with the penetration of a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), a communication terminal supporting the wireless LAN has increased the variety of functions. For example, a Dual mode terminal having both the function of an access point (to be abbreviated as “AP” hereinafter) and that of a station (to be abbreviated as “STA” hereinafter) of a wireless LAN has been developed.
As a characteristic feature, a Dual mode terminal can effectively use the wireless band. For example, there has been proposed a technique of enabling a Dual mode terminal, which is connected to an AP and is going to communicate with an STA under the control of the same AP, to secede from the AP, form another network by activating an AP mode, and communicate with the STA of the communication partner without intervening the AP. A technique of causing an STA to acquire the connection parameters of a network has also been proposed, in which a server apparatus on the network transmits the connection parameters necessary for connection to an AP in response to a request from the STA (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-191721).
FIG. 1 shows a network configuration including Dual mode terminals.
A DISPLAY 101 and a PRINTER 103 are Dual mode terminals which operate in an STA mode. A DVC 102 and a PC 104 are STAs. The DISPLAY 101, the PRINTER 103, the DVC 102, the PC 104, a parameter storage apparatus 106, and a management apparatus 105 are connected to a network connectable to an AP 100. The network connectable to the AP 100 will be referred to as a home network here.
The management apparatus 105 manages the communication band of the home network. Assume that the DVC 102 starts communication with the DISPLAY 101, and the PC 104 starts communication with the PRINTER 103. To effectively use the communication band, the management apparatus 105 instructs the terminals under the control of the AP 100 to form other networks that are different from the home network. FIG. 2 shows a network configuration at that time. The DISPLAY 101 and the PRINTER 103 transit from the STA mode to the AP mode and separately form networks. Assume that a DSC 200 is connected to the home network in this state, desiring communication with the DVC 102. In this case, the DSC 200 cannot communicate with the DVC 102 because it is connected to another network.